Argument # 5:  The Bible is the word of God because it agrees with science and contains scientific facts.

 

Sometimes, Christians try to support their argument that the Bible is inspired by God by using the argument that the Bible agrees with Science!  Some of the scientific facts that Christians claim the Bible contain include a statement about the human body in Leviticus 17:11 that says "the life of the flesh is in the blood...”  However, it is a statement primitive man could have made because they could easily have observed on experience that when a person loses enough blood, they don't survive.  Also, there is a verse in the book of Job 26:7 that says “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”  This one may raise an eyebrow, but the book of Job uses much metaphor in its language (e.g. Job 26:11 “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.”)

 

Nevertheless, those verses do not invalidate the verses below that prove the opposite.  Here are some FALSE scientific facts in the "inerrant" Bible.  How can an inerrant and infallible Bible have FALSE scientific facts such as these? 

 

Christians may try to claim that the verses below are only metaphors and not to be taken literally.  However, if that’s so, why can’t we also take their cherished theological doctrines such as the Salvation, Atonement, and Crucifixion and claim that those are metaphors too?

 

False scientific facts in the Bible

 

Insects do NOT have four feet

 

Lev 11:21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth

upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the

earth;

 

Lev 11:22 Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and

the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the

grasshopper after his kind.

 

Lev 11:23 But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet,

shall be an abomination unto you.

 

They have six.  In fact, NOTHING that can fly has four feet.

 

Rabbits do not chew their cud

 

Lev 11:6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

 

They only appear to, due to mistaken human perception.  How could an all knowing God not know this?

 

Snakes, while built low, do not eat dirt nor dust

 

Genesis 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

 

The bat is not a bird

 

Lev 11:13 These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are

detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

 

Lev 11:19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

 

Deu 14:11 You may eat any clean bird.

 

Deu 14:12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,

 

Deu 14:18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

 

The bat is in fact a flying mammal.

 

Snails do not melt

 

Psalm 58:8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like

the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

 

The Earth is NOT flat!

 

Yet these verses indicate that the Earth must either be flat, square or rectangle!

 

Isaiah 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

 

Revelation 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

 

How can the Earth have four corners if it's sphere-shaped?  Four corners indicate either a flat, square or rectangular structure!

 

Likewise, notice the structural disposition of the Earth assumed by these verses.

 

Psalms 67:7  God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

 

Psalms 135:7   He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

 

Proverbs 30:4   Who has gone up to heaven and come down?   Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands?  Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?   Who has established all the ends of the earth?  What is his name, and the name of his son?   Tell me if you know!

 

Isaiah 40:28  Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

 

Isaiah 41:9   I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.  I said, 'You are my servant';  I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

 

Isaiah 5:26   He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,  he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.  Here they come,   swiftly and speedily!

 

Daniel 4:10-11 These are the visions I saw while lying in my bed: I looked, and there

before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth.

 

Zechariah 9:10   I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.  He will proclaim peace to the nations.   His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 

 

Mark 13:26-27 At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.  And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

 

Romans 10:18   But I ask: Did they not hear?  Of course they did:  "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

 

How can a round sphere have "ends"?  Also, in regard to Psalm 135:7, winds do not come from storehouses!  So much for Biblical meteorology.  And from Daniel 4:10-11, how can a tree be tall enough to touch the sky?  Did the infallible Bible writers think that the sky had a roof?  Also from Daniel:

 

Daniel 4:20  The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth...

 

No matter how tall that tree is, there's no way it could be seen to the “ends of the Earth” on a spherical body!  Likewise,

 

Isaiah 18:3  All you people of the world,  you who live on the earth,  when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it,  and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it.

 

Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,

and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

 

Luke 4:5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 

 

Since astronomical bodies are spherical, you cannot see the entire exterior surface from anyplace on it, therefore you could not technically see "all the kingdoms of the world" from one point! 

 

Next,

 

Proverbs 8:29 when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. 

 

Zechariah 12:1   This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth... 

 

A foundation structurally implies building a basement to the ground first to lay the rest above it! 

 

Similarly,

 

Psalms 75:3  When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. 

 

I guess the foundation of the world has pillars holding it up too?

 

Of course, in defense Christians will try to claim that these verses are only metaphors or allegorical, and not to be taken literally.  But why don’t they take all the verses of their cherished fundamental doctrines and do the same as well?  How do they decide what is allegorical and what is literal?  And why should we trust their judgment on that?

 

The Earth is not motionless

 

Psalms 104:5 The Earth is firmly fixed; it shall not be moved.

 

1 Chronicles 16:30 Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. 

 

The Earth is moving constantly 24 hours a day in its path around the Sun!

 

The moon is not a light

 

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and

the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

 

The moon is not a light!  You can only see it glow only because of the sun's reflection off of it.  During some of its phases, you can't even see it at all!

 

Our sun is not the same age as the rest of the stars

 

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and

the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

 

Scientists have observed and dated many of the stars in the universe to be millions or even billions of years older than our sun.

 

Stars are not little balls of light close to the Earth!

 

Revelation 6:12-14
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

 

The Bible authors obviously thought that the stars were little balls of light that could fall to the Earth.  They had no idea how big and how far away the stars actually are!

 

Wind is not held in storehouses

 

Psalms 135:7   He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

 

Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of meteorology or basic science can tell you that wind is not produced from “storehouses”!

 

How can an inerrant book inspired by an all-knowing God make false scientific facts such as these? 

 

Now, they can argue that the false scientific facts in the Bible cited above are based on an overly literal interpretation of the verses, but again, who is to decide what is literal, metaphorical, or allegorical?  After all, Christians can’t even agree amongst themselves as to which of the prophecies of the book of Revelation to take literally, which to take allegorically, and which to take as a little of each!  And why can’t they see their cherished doctrines of sin, salvation, atonement, etc. as allegorical too?  Nevertheless, these verses demonstrate that the Bible is not inerrant, which shatters the absolute unquestionable authority of it that Evangelists hope to foster. 

 

Furthermore, there are mathematical mistakes in the Bible as well.  See Mathematical Errors in the Bible.

 

To see a long list of discrepancies, scientific implausibilities, and unanswered questions about the global flood described in Genesis, see:  http://www.skepticfiles.org/evo2/noahprob.htm

 

 

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